1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a stamp device, and particularly to a stamp device including a stamp member having a print face portion that is formed of a heat sensitive stencil paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been conventionally utilized various kinds of stamps each of which serves to print a company name, an address or other character arrays on the surface of a sheet and has a print face portion formed of rubber.
Usually, this type of stamp is individually made to order. Hence, they are expensive and a user must wait for a long time to receive them from an order.
On the other hand, a heat sensitive stencil paper has been conventionally used for printing in which a desired pattern can be perforated by irradiation of infrared rays or a thermal head, and ink is transmitted through a perforation array to print various kinds of patterns of character arrays, figures, marks or the like.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,725, the applicant of the present application proposed a stencil plate that mainly contains a heat sensitive stencil paper as described above and an impregnation member impregnated with ink. The stencil plate is suitable to prepare a stamp in place of the conventional stamp having the print face portion formed of rubber as described above.
The stencil plate is formed as follows. An impregnation member impregnated with ink and a frame member surrounding the impregnation member are adhesively attached to a synthetic resin film, and a heat sensitive stencil paper is adhesively attached onto the surfaces of the impregnation member and the frame member.
When the stencil plate as described above is applied to a stamp, the stencil plate is adhesively attached to the lower surface of the base portion of a stamp member having a grip portion through a cushion member, and a desired pattern of a character array or the like is perforated on a heat sensitive paper by irradiation of infrared rays or a thermal head. With this construction, a stamp that comprises a stamp member and a stencil plate and can print the desired character-array pattern or the like on sheets over many times can be obtained.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,581, the applicant of the present application proposed a stamp device comprising a stamp member and a thermal perforating device for perforating the print face portion of the stamp member.
The stamp member comprises a grip portion, a body case, a supply reel and a take-up reel that are accommodated in the body case and serve to supply and wind a tape-shaped heat sensitive stencil paper, and an ink pad for supplying ink to perforated portions of the heat sensitive stencil paper.
The thermal perforating device includes a perforation mount portion on which the stamp member is freely detachably mounted, a feed mechanism for feeding the heat sensitive stencil paper of the stamp member, a thermal head for perforating the heat sensitive stencil paper of the stamp member, a key board for inputting characters or symbols, and a controller for controlling the feed mechanism and the thermal head so that the heat sensitive stencil paper is perforated to form a character array that is input on the basis of input data.
According to the stamp device, the heat sensitive stencil paper is provided in a tape shape to the stamp member, and the print face portion of the stamp member is perforated by the thermal perforating device to form a desired character-array pattern so that different patterns can be perforatively formed on the print face portion as desired. Further, since ink is automatically supplied to the print face portion from the ink pad in the stamp member during a print operation, the print operation can be performed without coating external ink to the print face portion.
The stamp member as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,581 is provided with the tape-shaped long heat sensitive stencil paper. However, in usual cases, only a part of the heat sensitive stencil paper is used, and thus, it is vainly wasted. Further, since the tape-shaped long heat sensitive stencil paper, the supply reel, the take-up reel, etc. are accommodated in the stamp member, the stamp member becomes large in size, and it is difficult to use. In addition, a manufacturing cost thereof is high. Still further, since the tape-shaped heat sensitive stencil paper is kept in contact with the ink pad, a sealing to prevent leakage of the ink from the ink pad is difficult, and the leakage of the ink is liable to occur.